In the mid-1970s tourists were being warned by a concerned group of local citizens in New York City to steer clear of the Big Apple via a pamphlet campaign. Crime had risen dramatically since the late sixties, the city was reeling from a number of political and economic crises including a mass garbage workers’ strike, and unemployment was at an all time high, driving many residents to leave for the suburbs. The media began to refer to Manhattan as “Fear City” and actress Shirley MacLaine was quoted as saying NYC was “the Karen Quinlan of cities” (a reference to the teenager who lapsed into a coma in 1975 and lived in a permanent vegetative state for ten years before dying from pneumonia). It was during this period that Belgium filmmaker Chantal Akerman created one of her most personal and acclaimed films during a 1976 visit. News from Home is an autobiography of sorts and the director was no stranger to the city. She had lived there in 1971 but her movie is not a tourist’s view of the city. It shows us the kind of gritty urban environment that Martin Scorsese immortalized in 1976’s Taxi Driver.